Vegas Golden Knights: Marchessault the hero as Knights squeeze past Sens

It was a night to remember for Mark Stone who helped the Vegas Golden Knights secure a hard-fought win over former team the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

After dropping a 5-2 decision to the Nashville Predators earlier in the week, the Vegas Golden Knights warmed up for a three-game road trip by beating the Senators in a Shootout.

It was a story of the two netminders as Marc-Andre Fleury made a plethora of highlight-reel stops, while Anders Nilsson made an NHL career-high 52 saves for the Ottawa Senators.

Reilly Smith‘s sixth goal of the year gave the Golden Knights an early lead in the first period, but defenseman Thomas Chabot quickly struck back to make it a tied game.

Nick Holden got his first goal of the year to give Vegas a lead heading into the second period, but Jean-Gabriel Pageau got on the board to ensure the game went to Overtime.

After both goalies pulled off some sensational saves, it was down to a Shootout and, after ten excruciating rounds, it was Jonathan Marchessault who grabbed the winner to move the Golden Knights to 5-3-0 on the year and give Gerard Gallant a victory in his 500th game as an NHL Head Coach.

The Lineup

Following the breaking news that forward Valentin Zykov had been suspended 20 games for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program, Brandon Pirri came in to replace the Russian on the lineup card.

That was the only change for the Vegas Golden Knights with Marc-Andre Fleury getting his fourth consecutive start between the pipes.

The Game

First Period – There was an early fight to enjoy as Ryan Reaves dropped the gloves with Ottawa’s Scott Sabourin – famous for his preseason encounter with Auston Matthews – and it was Reaves, of course, who got the win.

That seemed to spark the Golden Knights into life and they took the lead at 4:12 as Reilly Smith took a pass from Jonathan Marchessault before backhanding it past Anders Nilsson in little to no space.

It was soon a tied game, however, as Thomas Chabot pulled off a sublime toe drag to beat Paul Stastny before wristing a hell of a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury.

Both Nilsson and Fleury were locked in and making big saves as the former denied Cody Glass, before the latter came charging out of his crease to save the day with an aggressive poke check.

There was one final goal of the period, though, and it went to Vegas as Nick Holden let loose with an absolute humdinger of a one-timer on the power play, gifting Mark Stone his 200th NHL career assist as a result.

Second Period – Marc-Andre Fleury continued to do Marc-Andre Fleury things in the middle frame, including freezing a puck without his glove on, and it was the goalies who stole the show in a scoreless second period.

Third Period – Jean-Gabriel Pageau tied the game at 4:25 in the final period after jumping on a Tyler Ennis rebound, and that was enough to take the game to Overtime despite the fact that Vegas had outshot the Senators 52-34 in regulation.

Overtime – Marc-Andre Fleury started Overtime by pulling off a sensational save to rob Senators forward Connor Brown, and he was responsible for a flurry of stops as Vegas managed to survive and take the game to a Shootout.

The Shootout – Bobby Ryan was denied by Marc-Andre Fleury before Brandon Pirri scored for the Golden Knights, and it went the distance before Jonathan Marchessault kept his cool to convert the winning goal.

Here’s the full results:

1: Ottawa – Bobby Ryan – Save

2: Vegas – Brandon Pirri – Goal

3: Ottawa – Vladislav Namestnikov – Goal

4: Vegas – Mark Stone – Save

5: Ottawa – Anthony Duclair – Save

6: Vegas – Reilly Smith – Miss

7: Ottawa – Tyler Ennis – Goal

8: Vegas – Shea Theodore – Goal

9: Ottawa – Brady Tkachuk – Miss

10: Vegas – Jonathan Marchessault – Goal

Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game: